


Both One and the Other

by tsukinofaerii



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: Identity Porn, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-18
Updated: 2010-03-18
Packaged: 2017-10-08 02:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/71796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsukinofaerii/pseuds/tsukinofaerii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Still only recently pulled from the ice, Steve can't choose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Both One and the Other

Steve really isn't sure when it happened. It could have been when he opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was a blank faceplate staring down at him, or the time Tony had emerged soot-stained from his ruined lab and wouldn't stop grinning for an hour afterwards because "it" worked—whatever "it" had been. There've been a hundred different times that he's fallen in love, but he doesn't know which had been _the_ fall.

It got more complicated when he noticed the tone Iron Man would use when speaking about his employer—a little amusement, some fondness, irony, as if there's a joke only he's in on. Tony uses the same voice, a flippant affection that he doesn't show anywhere else. Steve watches, and even though they're never in the same place together, there's no doubt what's going on between them. When he sees Tony's musician's fingers run over a piece of the armor in a way most men only touch women, Steve has to bite his cheek to keep from saying anything.

Sometimes he thinks about them, about the man hidden by the helmet, how they met, what goes on when the lab doors close. He tries to put a face to the computerized voice, to estimate height and weight under the armor. What shade is his skin? Is it so dark it makes Tony's hands look light as they run over it? Or is it the sort of pale that speaks of mountains and long winters?

Being Captain America, part of the Avengers, isn't just a "job". It's a duty—a calling. He has to do it, even when his hands shake with fear over losing one or both of them. He'd rather keep them safe than have never known what he can't have.


End file.
